One of the cool things about the current US administration is that they allow regular people to submit petitions to the White House electronically via its “We the People” initiative. Once a petition gets 25,000 virtual signatures, the White House will issue an official response. Last year, a petition appeared wherein the petitioner asked the current US government to build a Death Star. Yes, the same Death Star that is capable of annihilating planets and the one that Admiral Ackbar truly, truly fears.
Since that particular petition has managed to reach 25,000 signatures, the White House had no choice but to reply. And reply it did. In a post labeled “This isn’t the Petition You Are Looking For”, Paul Shawcross, Chief of the Science and Space Branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget outlines the issues that they would have if they ever did build one. He cites that a Death Star isn’t feasible citing cost (by his estimate) $850,000,000,000,000,000 (man that’s a lot of zeroes), the general dislike of the current administration of blowing up planets, and the Death Star’s overall vulnerability to one-man starships. He then explains that we already have a man-made space station in space, in the form of the International Space Station, and although it doesn’t have a wicked planet destroying laser, it has robotic arms and a multi-cultural crew. Check out the official response of Paul in the link below.
Source: White House